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Index 2002: Letters to the Editor

January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December - 2001 index - 2003 index

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Dec. 23/30

• Liability insurer: The facts support movement for tort reform
• Medicare's underpayment policies leading to a care-rationing crisis

Dec. 16

• Current liability system's toll extends past economic matters
• Government ducking its responsibility to help protect physician DEA numbers

Dec. 9

• Resident work restrictions at odds with the best medical training

Dec. 2

• Caution: Anti-sleeping pill has potential for abuse
• Honest expert witnesses will "call them as they see them"
• Dealing with midnight emergencies is how we learn to be physicians
• Preemptive vaccination for smallpox would bring more harm than benefit

Nov. 25

• Practical advice on divorce is fine, but article neglected the emotional side
• Both patients and physicians cheated by Medicare's geographic pay policy
• Tough times can't happen soon enough for mental health "carve-out" firms
• Quality reward programs can easily miss what really counts in medicine

Nov. 18

• Medical profession has itself to blame for its fading attraction
• Physicians must fight to pass along cost of professional liability coverage

Nov. 11

• HIPAA should be kept in mind when calling patients at home
• HIPAA the new "Mother, may I?"
• Medicare cuts will bring bleak future
• Pharmaceutical industry gift giving is an overblown issue

Nov. 4

• Physician fact of life: No time left
• When it comes to gifts to physicians, there really is no free lunch
• If direct-to-consumer ads don't stop, start new year by locking out reps

Oct. 28

• Pay me for prescription hassles, or better yet, create a good health plan
• Residency programs must address the future of family practice
• It's the nature of the individual physician, not a nursing background, that determines compassion in care
• In organ donation, physicians should set an example as volunteers instead of exploring "presumed consent"

Oct. 21

• Reflections on a lawsuit, expert testimony and the "plaintiff whore"
• How one academic Web site was created, and content standards used
• Heartwarming story is also a chilling reminder of need for tort reform
• Consumer-driven health plans can also offer clinical advantages
• AMA policy on industry gifts to physicians went overboard

Oct. 14

• Family physician care may not be glamorous but it is important
• Assistance in death is not a message that life isn't worth living
• It's "professional liability insurance," not "malpractice insurance"
• Physicians must be wary of liability insurance scammers

Oct. 7

• Recruitment for phase I clinical trials raises issue of patient self-deception
• Medical transcriptionist: Many doctors are sloppy talkers
• Physicians should give ultimatum on direct-to-consumer drug ads
• Private cord blood bank: AMNews gave public facilities favored treatment

Sept. 23/30

• Gender a key factor in predicting who will choose a surgical residency
• Lighten up on decrying gifts to doctors
• Family practices should chart by family, not by individual
• Offering financial incentives for organ donation will backfire

Sept. 16

• Caps on noneconomic damages block access to justice? Hogwash!
• Congress' own price-fixing of medicine was cause of nurse shortage
• Easing nurse shortage requires more than what Congress has provided
• If bioterrorism vaccination ever comes, let the lawyers do it
• Final privacy rule will allow personal information to be plundered
• Think you might be influenced by drug company gift? Then don't accept it

Sept. 9

• Don't regulate online medicine to point where patients can't ask questions
• Health reimbursement arrangements are not as good as MSAs
• Medical treatment of obesity should be on national preventive care agenda

Sept. 2

• Health plans savvy in blocking hardball collection tactics
• One IPA's stance: Discounts apply only when the fee is paid on time
• Medicare cuts risk practice's future
• Direct billing to patients eliminates third-party hassles and intrusions

Aug. 26

• Is there one more career turnabout ahead for doctors and nurses?
• Forget tort reform and instead demand arbitration of all claims
• Medicare's meager pay rate pushes doctors to work themselves "into divorces and an early grave"
• Profession should stop bashing itself over pharmaceutical industry gifts
• Pro-gift stance ignores special nature of health spending

Aug. 19

• E&M micromanagement robs physicians of productive time
• Drug company wooing of doctors undermines trust while raising costs
• Many physicians will not be impressed by a 2% increase in Medicare pay
• Censure physician "hired guns" who help with unfounded lawsuits

Aug. 12

• AMA should boost recruitment efforts and remain membership organization
• Time to opt out when "capitation" turns into "decapitation"
• Flu vaccine shot illustrates problems doctors have with Medicare

Aug. 5

• Smallpox prevaccination figure should be set higher
• Medicare drug benefit likely bad news for doctors and patients
• Plaintiff's expert witness should not be paid if the case is lost, or no trial

July 29

• Men resistant to the one-upmanship entailed in a visit to the doctor
• A charitable solution for doctors suffering from industry gift withdrawal pains?
• E&M documentation not as hard as it's made out to be

July 22

• Business entertainment is routine -- so why not for physicians?
• Expert witness paid for time and expertise -- not for testimony
• There's actually not enough good documentation in medical records
• Documentation demands stand in the way of increasing online care

July 8/15

• Hourly billing should be the standard for how physicians are paid
• Organized medicine's stance on drug industry gifts is hypocritical
• Nurse practitioner leader: Health care focus should be on cooperation, not competition

July 1

• A penalty that sounds like a present
• E-mail can be effective in practice, but not for a quick diagnosis
• Spoon-fed or not, doctors have obligation to keep up-to-date
• Insurance dependence at heart of why doctors working more, enjoying less
• Happy with midlevel providers as part of this medical practice

June 24

• Doctors won't sell out their patients for a couple of baseball tickets
• Pharmaceutical industry meal guidelines are anti-family
• There will be no help for patients if doctors can't help themselves
• Doctors no longer run the ship -- they've been turned into hired hands

June 17

• Recognize the snobbery of refusing to see pharmaceutical reps
• Jury system won't be perfect until fairness is restored
• Juries an "antiquated anachronism"

June 10

• Want to have meaningful tort reform? Do away with contingency fees
• Costlier liability coverage for med schools means more debt for students
• In malpractice cases, expert witnesses should testify for free
• Nevada hardly alone in suffering from corporate control of medicine
• Nonphysician practitioners cost doctors jobs, deny patients best care

June 3

• Idea of paid visits by pharmaceutical reps is "ethically repugnant"
• An untimely cell phone call

May 27

• Up with righteous indignation, down with "doormatism" by physicians
• Article wasn't tough enough in questioning expert witnesses
• Expert witness: More physicians should be willing to settle
• Florida an example of a legal system where witnesses are among winners

May 20

• Medicare pay cut also will lower fees paid to physicians by managed care
• Treat attorneys like physicians when it comes to handling payment of fees
• Before encouraging others into medical career, fight for fair treatment for physicians
• AMNews erred in substituting "foreign" for "international"

May 13

• Volunteers need legal protection
• "Hired gun" among the more collegial names given to expert witnesses
• Gen Y patients won't get the added time with doctors that they expect
• Hold the line against euthanasia
• "Cherry-picking" inevitable when payment for patient care is capitated

May 6

• Independent physicians need the right to negotiate collectively with insurers
• Dropping health plans more attractive than struggling further to get paid
• Beware excessive specialist care
• Ethical humanism also brings spirituality to patient care

April 22/29

• Medicare made it necessary to retire
• Medicare should pay at the same rate no matter where physician practices
• "One-size-fits-all" insurance coverage just can't work
• Physicians need both less and more than traditional collective bargaining

April 15

• Physician's conviction will deter proper prescribing of pain medication
• Where Medicare pays doctors less, the government should tax them less

April 8

• What gun owners want from the AMA
• Once patient needs are met, they stop asking for suicide assistance
• Look to underlying needs and overarching goals to stop squabbles
• Expect 'significant patient suffering' before the effects of reimbursement cuts on care are understood
• Post patient information on Web, too
• Drug company representatives going from useful to a nuisance

April 1

• Anti-managed care movie wrong to set hostage scene in ED
• Medical student won't be following in his father's footsteps in a rural area
• The solution to plight of uninsured is coverage as a right of citizenship
• Nurses will leave profession if they are tired, stressed
• FSMB: Physician information Web sites should focus on essential facts

March 25

• Stem cell findings controversy headline revealed bias
• Survey found fewer physicians prescribing by handheld
• The right maggots do have legitimate role in medical treatment
• Professional associations should work more on raising reimbursement

March 18

• MSAs have managed care scared
• Not every risk can be legislated or engineered away
• Prosecution threat for treating undocumented immigrants could cause emergency department crisis

March 11

• HHS secretary: My agency is committed to regulatory reform
• Direct-to-consumer drug ads are demeaning to public and physicians
• Family-leave policies not fair to childless physicians
• Charging drug company reps for a visit is a sign of "pure greed"

March 4

• Liability rates went up and this doctor went away -- to the U.S. Navy
• There are ways to end licensing hassles for physicians moving from state to state
• Letters offer a view of the medical profession's self-importance

Feb. 25

• U.S. military reserves provide chance to help patients in need overseas
• Modern medicine not allowed to run by the rules of Economics 101
• Remembering a nurse's care -- including the dose of whiskey
• HMOs force unsafe patient ratios
• Nurses "the catalyst" in health care

Feb. 18

• Physician-nurse collaboration essential for high-quality care
• Nurses' stress levels high, morale low
• Doctors, nurses must join in "battle for a better system"
• Past decade took toll on collegiality, respect between nurses and doctors

Feb. 11

• Patients deserve services of a physician, not an NP or PA
• Physicians' current chasing of work proves there is no shortage of doctors
• Partnership promotes effective care
• A legal degree is only the beginning in making doctor a lawyer
• Medicare's "grand experiment" has run its course -- and failed

Feb. 4

• As managed care pares hospital stays, more need for physicians to advocate on behalf of patients
• Medicare reform must focus on end to cap on allowable charges
• Lawyer tax would help offset rising cost of professional liability coverage

Jan. 28

• Fundamental problems in the way of using handhelds for billing
• Lowering achievement standards won't produce a better physician
• It's breast, not beast

Jan. 21

• Don't lower the bar on admissions to medical school
• Handshake, hands-on exam, even hug all elements of personalized care

Jan. 14

• Act now against smallpox risk by giving inoculations of diluted vaccine
• Test a turn-off to physicians considering move to Arizona
• Hemlock Society: Physicians should oppose Ashcroft on assisted suicide

Jan. 7

• Report warns that health care policy must be linked to immigration policy
• "Do no harm" not a verbatim quote from Hippocratic oath
• Stop stereotyping managed care
• Medicine is anti-Darwinian
• It is creationism, not evolution, that is "intellectually bankrupt"
• AMA should not get involved in decision to charge for drug rep visits

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